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CORMOPHYTA. The Higher Plants. 



Whether all the higher plants are derived from one 

 original type, or whether they have originated from different 

 classes of thallophytes need not be discussed here. With 

 the exception of a few of the lowest forms, e.g. liverworts 

 and mosses, and, of course, of those which, owing to a 

 special mode of life like the parasites, have lost certain 

 organs and developed others, all cormophytes possess true 

 roots, stems and leaves, and consequently vascular tissue. 

 They are provided with chlorophyll, hence also able to 

 assimilate the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere. They 

 reproduce themselves by a sexual process, often also by 

 vegetative means ; but the mode of sexual reproduction and 

 the organs serving it are so widely different in the four main 

 groups of cormophytes, that their relationship, as far as it 

 may exist or may have existed, is not yet sufficiently 

 understood. 



A. Archegoniatae. 



Division XII. Bryophyta. Liverworts and mosses. 

 XIII. Pteridophyta. Ferns and fern-allies. 



B. Anthophyta. Flowering Plants. 



Division XIV. Gymnospermae. Plants with naked ovules 



and seeds. 

 XV. Angiospermae. Plants with pistils and 

 seeds, the latter enclosed in various 

 ways by the wall of the fruit. 



